777ӰԺ

Chris Town

Email: cpt23@cam.ac.uk

Website:

Dr Chris Town

Bye-Fellow, Director of Studies in Computer Science (Part II and Part III)
University Positions
Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology
Subjects
Computer Science
Specialising in
Computer Vision

Chris Town is an Affiliated Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Technology (Computer Laboratory) where he primarily teaches Computer Vision and related courses to undergraduates and MPhil students. His current main research focus is on high performance mobile computer vision and on pattern recognition algorithms for the biological and medical sciences.

Academic interests

Chris Town’s academic interests include: 

  • Computer Vision
  • Pattern recognition
  • Biometrics
  • High performance deep learning
  • Medical informatics.

Degrees obtained

  • BA/MA, Cantab.
  • PhD, Cantab.

Awards and prizes

  • ICPRS best paper award, 2022.
  • Wolfson College Senior Research Fellowship, 2009.
  • BCS Distinguished Dissertation (PhD) Awards recipient, 2006.
  • Wolfson College Junior Research Fellowship, 2005.
  • Trinity College Rouse Ball Scholarship, 2005.
  • ICVS best cognitive vision paper award, 2003.
  • Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Industrial Fellowship, 2001.

Biography

Chris Town’s research lies at the nexus of computer vision, information retrieval, machine learning, and language processing. Together with Dr David Sinclair he pioneered the ontology based approach to automated visual information processing. His PhD work (supervised by Professor John Daugman OBE) and post-doctoral research in this area at Cambridge were honoured in the UK's distinguished dissertation competition, and led to the award of a Trinity College Rouse Ball Scholarship, an Industrial Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and a JRF at Wolfson College. He previously worked at AT&T Labs Research, where he reported directly to Dr David Belanger (AT&T Chief Scientist) and worked with Dr Yann LeCun (the pioneer of deep convolutional neural networks).

Chris is also a Fellow, Tutor and DoS at Wolfson College, as well as Chief Technology Officer of Imense Ltd, a high-tech company co-founded by him that develops novel image analysis, optical character recognition and document verification solutions.

He has many active interdisciplinary research collaborations with biologists, ecologists and medical researchers. Chris is a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

Other interests

Photography, SCUBA diving, marine biology.

Department link

Publications, links and resources

Find more information about Chris Town's publications and research on his . 

Events

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News

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    Dolly

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    I chose Cambridge for my PGCE as it’s the leading UK institution for teacher training and Education, with an exciting, research-dominated, cutting edge course. The staff are welcoming and approachable, and make studying here an absolute joy. I’ve already completed one of my three primary school placements, in a reception class in a school just outside Cambridge, and am due to start the next one soon. I chose Jesus because of its reputation as a sporty College, but the proximity to the city centre is a big bonus. Jesus also...

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    Matthew

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    777ӰԺ has been at the heart of my Cambridge experience. I chose the College because I was impressed by its distinctive blend of academic rigour and extracurricular achievement. A College for all-rounders, Jesus is a lively and rewarding place to study. I couldn’t be happier here! Friendly and engaged, the Jesus postgraduate community never ceases to impress me. At ease with themselves and forever curious, my peers go out of their way to cultivate a sense of camaraderie. After a day of leafing through old manuscripts at the National...

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    Alison

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    What first attracted me to 777ӰԺ was its reputation and history, central location without being touristy, and the postgraduate housing options. When I arrived at Jesus I was so pleased to find the partner accommodation was spacious, affordable, and situated very close to the college, allowing us to really take advantage of the facilities. We especially enjoyed The Roost, the nicest of all the college bars, doubling as a café during the day - ideal for studying or meeting up with groups - and a lively pub in the...

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    Jake

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    When applying to Cambridge colleges it can feel a bit overwhelming as there are so many to choose from. I applied to 777ӰԺ because it has a large MCR which was important for me because I wanted to feel part of a community. Now that I’m doing my PhD here, I’m very glad I did choose a college with a large postgraduate community. Throughout the year there are lots of postgraduate events, including formal dinners, special formals at Christmas and Easter, bops in the bar and film nights in...

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